Ulster Unionists to establish independent process over child abuser Donaldson

The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has said it will appoint an independent, external organisation to establish a process for people to confidentially share information about Jeffrey Donaldson during his time in the party.

Donaldson was convicted of 18 counts of sex abuse last month, including one count of rape, committed against two women when they were children.

The former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader was a member of the UUP from 1985 until 2003, before joining the DUP.

The UUP has also said it will review its safeguarding arrangements.

UUP leader Jon Burrows said Donaldson "lived his life as a political fraud and he raised himself up to the highest echelons of political life".

"I want to make sure for that time he was in our party that if anyone has any information or concerns that they want to raise, they can do so," he said.

While no-one has been selected to lead the process, Burrows told the Good Morning Ulster programme that he wanted to reassure the public there would be a mechanism.

"It's important to send that signal to the public, we are taking action," he added.

In a statement a UUP spokesperson said the party had "commissioned a rapid review as a preliminary step to establish the facts regarding Donaldson during his membership of the party".

Burrows told The Nolan Show that he "had Lord Elliot and Lord Empey speak to some key people in the party to find out if there was any complaints made during that time".

He added that they "can't find" any records of complaints or concerns about Donaldson.

"They had to just pick some key people. We will then ask the independent mechanism to widen this out and invite the public, speak to any other people, check with people in the party, do it as independently as possible."

Last week, Donaldson's legal team said they planned to appeal against his sex offence convictions.

The statement continued: "As a party, however, we recognise that the absence of a record does not mean there is nothing further to be established, particularly over a period of almost two decades. The rapid review was a first step, not the end of the matter."

It said that was why it was establishing an "independent, confidential process" regarding the former Lagan Valley MP.

The statement added that the party believes that "only a fully independent inquiry, with the necessary powers, can establish what, if anything, was known about Donaldson across his entire public career by political parties".

"Public trust is built through openness and accountability. Where there are lessons to be learned, including for our own party, we are committed to learning them."

Separately, the DUP has also commissioned an independent review into Donaldson's time in that party.

Donaldson's time in politics began in 1985 when he was elected for the UUP to represent the South Down constituency in the 1980s iteration of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Before his election, he had worked for South Down MP Enoch Powell who had joined the Ulster Unionists from the Conservatives in the 1970s.

In 1997, when his boss James Molyneaux retired as the Lagan Valley MP, Donaldson retained the seat comfortably for the UUP.

But his unhappiness with the party became obvious as political negotiations at Stormont moved towards the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

He became one of the UUP's biggest critics of the deal over issues like the IRA's decommissioning of weapons, warning his then leader David Trimble against supporting it.

Even after the agreement, and the first power-sharing government was formed in its wake, he continued to pose problems for the party and supported failed bids by others to oust Trimble from office.

In 2003, he quit and defected to the DUP.